AUSTRALIAN INFLUENZA

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Abstract

The Department of Health and Ageing acknowledges the providers of the many sources of data used in this report and greatly appreciates their contribution. KEY INDICATORS Influenza activity and severity in the community is monitored using the following indicators and surveillance systems: Is the situation changing? How severe is the disease, and is severity changing? Is the virus changing? Indicated by trends in: � laboratory confirmed cases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS); � influenza associated hospitalisations; � emergency department (ED) presentations for influenza-like illness (ILI); � general practitioner (GP) consultations for ILI; � ILI-related call centre calls and community level surveys of ILI; and � sentinel laboratory test results. Indicated by trends in: � hospitalisations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and deaths; and � clinical severity in hospitalised cases and ICU admissions. Indicated by trends in: � drug resistance; and � antigenic drift or shift of the circulating viruses